The Beatles: UK Response to US Capitol versions?

Vee Jay records was a big deal by 1963. The Four Seasons had major smash hits on American radio like Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man, etc. It's not like they lacked connections in major American radio stations or record stores. Despite this, Introducing The Beatles was a bomb, the singles on Vee Jay, Tollie, and Swan likewise.

Yes, Capitol jeopardized the Beatles success and blew 1963 in its entirety. That said, the Beatles were represented by a respected and major label in Vee Jay and they went nowhere. It took Capitol remixing and repackaging the Beatles '62-'64 body of work for them to explode.

 

I disagree. They went into the studio to create tracks for Please Please Me, famously in one day, plus the two singles. But yes, it was what they had. AHDN is the first UK all originals album, and I think the material is strong and coherent. BFS and Help again sound like they "used what they had".

 

I find that hard to believe myself. I certainly don't feel that. If you have heard that said, then I can understand why you'd think that.

And I agree with the Beatles! But so what? As you said, if it's water under the bridge then why attach the asterick of artistic integrity to the Capitol albums as if it has anything to do with what really happened in regards to the Beatles success in America?

Oh, well that could be true I suppose. I would like to think they would respectfully understand the criticism. I certainly do. Yet I can understand their annoyance as well when they hear Capitol opponents (or even other Capitol fans) always bringing up a fact that is readily apparent, as if it should have anything to do with the Beatles success here (or the fact that those were the albums provided, for which they loved).

No I can't. You might be surprised at the countless posts constantly (sometimes rudely) pointing out the fact that one shouldn't treat the Capitol albums as "legitimate", or that they should somehow "be ashamed" if they still defend the Capitol albums. I hear it over and over and over and over and over. One in this very thread pages back! Although this thread has actually been more respectful on average, as I mentioned in the previous reply.

As mentioned, you don't see me constantly bringing up Parlophone's role or non-role in helping the Beatles music to become a success. I realize that the label had everything to do with delivering their music and don't spend my time attaching "but's" upon those whom they were very real to. Or questioning if they might have been even more successful if they had been tweaked, altered, etc.

You are correct.

No, when someone makes claims that the Capitol albums always have to be viewed as not being a reason why the Beatles were a success in America, that automatically is showing an "elevation" or discrimination for one catalogue and not the other. Or more accurately at least showing a lowering of one catalogue.

Not too new. But I'm not a seasoned veteran yet.

It does do that. And I suspect a lot of others. No one likes to be reminded of the obvious all the time, as if they are under some illusion, when it has no bearing on a catalogue's success, an artist's success, or a listener's enjoyment.

 

No one "beloves" a record company.

The Beatles created a body of work. Capitol presented it in a slightly different way than Parlophone did. Parlophone's method worked for the UK, sucked for the USA. Capitol's method fixed the mistakes of the Parlophone attempts via Vee Jay for the USA market. That's it. There is no big deal here.

And we're 20 years into the era of digital music via ripping/burning/playlisting. Why are we even having this conversation? "Albums" no longer exist except for those holding onto their vinyl. CD's can be burned and Playlists can be created, do what makes you happy.

 

By that same logic, how can the UK albums be considered "canon" if the US albums were so much more successful in the US, the only market where both versions of Please Please Me were aggressively launched? Yours view too of the UK versions being canon is also an opinion at best, no less than stating the US albums would have sold better in the UK. We will never know.

 

I do. Not all the Capitol albums, but I believe Meet The Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Beatles '65, Rubber Soul, and Magical Mystery Tour were superior to their UK counterparts.

Look, at the time the Beatles were seriously viewing an LP as a singular body of work, the US cut out the butchering, they got in line, and they released Sgt Pepper as it was intended by the artists themselves. What we're debating here is the era when the Beatles were an NSYNC boy band and an Elvis movie band. Once they stopped the movies and the touring and got completely serious as focused artistic composers and studio musicians, so too did Capitol Records. Both sides of the pond are aligned halfway through 1967.

 

And that we all need to be reminded that the Bunny wasn't as Energizer intended when we are all recharging!

 

It was a combination. Hit them first with 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' - a Beatles song that America (and Capitol) could finally get excited about on a massive scale (released Dec. 26, 1963) - and then drop the piano out of the sky on them with the Meet The Beatles album (released 20 January, 1964).

The single sold a million copies; the album sold four million copies by the end of '64 (and, lo and behold, it also had the single on it!).

Meet The Beatles is, arguably, the most important album in the Beatles' career up 'til Sgt. Pepper. I'd say it's just as important, its massive success coming when it did in their quest to break America.

 

How is that "the same logic"? Canon is not determined by success, it's determined by the artist.

 

Capitol also had the Ed Sullivan shows in Feb 64. A label would have had to try hard to screw up after that!

 

I didn't say MTB was not important. It was. Hugely. I just said that IWHYH was even more important. It's what made America fall in love with The Beatles. Still today, in documentaries and articles, celebrities talk about the moment when they heard IWHYH. It changed everything.

 

Oh, I also agree that the Capitol albums are, in most cases, better, but that's a personal preference of mine.

I meant that I would never say the US albums are the original albums (as put out by the band in their own country). By that definition, they are never "elevated" relative to the UK catalogue. Nor could be.

Which is funny because I feel I keep echoing and agreeing with the very statements that I seem to always be countered or debated with! As if I've been disagreeing with them...

 

Actually canon is determined by observers, critics, fans, and historians as well.

I wouldn't say it is something that is limited to the artist; artists disown works all the time, but they're still canonical.

And 'canon' is often reconsidered long after an artist is dead. Wikipedia pages on Beatles albums show the concurrent US and UK releases when applicable, and give some description of them, their differing contents and respective release dates, chart and sales success. That sort of treatment is nigh canonical. (Whoever set up that tandem album page perspective had the hindsight and foresight to count the US album releases as as-important in the grand scheme of things in Beatles history, despite their being out of print and unmarketed from 1987-2004).

The US canon is perhaps not an officially sanctified one in some people's minds, but it definitely exists. Apple even took a shot at re-releasing it - twice, quite recently, with mixed results. They couldn't get it right because apparently they don't even understand what it was comprised of!

 

Absolutely!

When I think of the great/key/definitive Beatles albums up through 1965, I first think of the likes of "Meet The Beatles!" or the UA soundtrack to "A Hard Day's Night". I never think of "With The Beatles" or the UK album of "A Hard Day's Night". Or really any of the others on the UK side. Despite the fact that I knew them first and do like them in their own right.

Of course, none of that means that those albums are indeed "better", or that they are what the Beatles themselves would have wanted released, just that many of these much-critiqued Capitol albums are the very ones I think of when I think of Beatlemania. Which is probably no big surprise coming from someone here in America. I'm sure those who experienced the albums in their home country, or elsewhere, feel quite differently.

 

That's most definitely true, and perhaps that's the precise source of much of the debate and confusing hair-splitting that occurs - the fact that Capitol is every bit as "canon" (to America) as the original UK catalogue is. It simply isn't the canon the BAND would have wanted. But again, that's irrelevant. Especially today! And especially now that the band IS clearly treating it as "canon" (commercially).

 

The Capitol albums are official releases. But the cannon, the core discography of the band is the UK albums.

The Capitol albums have their place in history, and they had their importance, but whoever says they are equal to the UK or canon, are blinded by their nostalgia.

 

Which, admittedly, does show that Apple/the band indeed don't take the catalogue all that seriously.

But that's what makes all this funny. It's as if they know these albums were highly critical and integral to their fame and success here, yet they have no precise idea what the hell Capitol was even trying to do with their music. It's as if they naturally know that some different mixes and alterations were used (much to their ire), and that us fans crave having them as they were, etc, but they have no knowledge which songs they even were or which one of these crazy Capitol track listings contained what. At least in regards to the most recent "US Albums" box that is. It's made as if they were trying their best to recreate the whole US experience, but then just said "To hell with it. Let's just include a good chunk of the authentic tracks we know about, and just fill the rest of the box with our mixes. They will at least appreciate the work we put into giving them these album covers".

And they are right. Aesthetically, it's a gorgeous box! I'm always staring at mine!

 

Not me! The US canon is not only equal but better in my humble preference! And I never even got to experience the nostalgia (firsthand). They simply aren't the same albums as made by the band in their home country. And I do agree that if someone who had never heard of the band asked "Where can I find the albums the Beatles released?" I would naturally default to giving them the UK albums.

Although if they asked or seemed especially curious about "America's love affair with The Beatles", I certainly wouldn't hesitate to share a few of my favorites from the US lineup and perhaps offer why I personally prefer them to a UK counterpart.

 

Oh, I don't know...I think MTB and Rubber Soul are at the very least, equal to the U.K. counterparts (WTB for MTB). Then there's Help!...of course, the inclusion of 7 additional beatle tracks is better than film score music...but the U.S. album with the film score stuff actually works pretty darn well and is actually more atmospheric (in terms of the movie itself) than the all-Beatles U.K. album. Just my opinion; this can be discussed under the table forever...there's no one correct conclusion.

 

How can they be equal? They're different releases that sold different amounts to different peoples. People who examine history - histories they happened to have experienced to some degree - are blinded by nostalgia? Are you denying that there is a US canon of Beatles albums and singles?

And Magical Mystery Tour - a Capitol album - is that 'canon' - or just another Capitol compilation?

Some things are undeniable.

 

There's lots of canonical revisionism going on in the Beatles catalog. The Monos were left for dead for a very long time, even if there were the main deal at one time. The real '65 album mixes are put on the back side of the Mono box CDs - even though they're wide stereo! The new '87 Martin Stereo mixes are now supposed canon, digital reverb and all. Magical Mystery Tour gets rescued from the Hog Farm and gussied up to be part of the 'canon' because the Beatles were tripping at the time and couldn't make a whole album of it; Capitol, you have arrived... complete with the Capitol CD label (I haven't checked the recent MMT vinyl issues; surely they have Capitol labels?).

 

Very true. And the "nostalgia criticism" is a precise partner in the "not being courteous or fair to the other side" thing. I can't even begin to count how many times I hear the word nostalgia used as a negative or a "blind spot" lobbied towards someone when they are simply enjoying a very real preference for US albums that were indeed real.

Don't fans have nostalgia for the Parlophone albums? I've never heard anyone say that someone just holds on to Parlophone ideals or beliefs because of nostalgia.

It's not like most Capitol fans can't clearly and intelligently describe why they may prefer a US album to a UK counterpart. Like the artistic integrity qualification that always gets used as an asterik, why is nostalgia A) a bad thing, and B) relevant to a legitimate discography?

 

Yes, the copy I have does. Although I only have the 2009 stereo remasters reissue via vinyl (my preferred mix for that particular album).

 

Sure, VJ had hits with The Four Seasons and connections with radio stations. What the company didn't have was the sheer volume of resources to back a band with the kind of promotional campaign Capitol would decide on in December, 1963.

Vee Jay was falling apart during the second half of 1963. The company's business manager siphoned off huge amounts of company cash to pay off personal gambling debts. I read somewhere they had trouble meeting production schedules, supplying record stores -- resulting in lost sales for already established acts, let alone promoting an unknown foreign group.

No, it took a historically unprecedented promotional campaign mass national TV exposure for them to explode.

I doubt very highly that remixing had anything to do with it. The repackaging, or rather the packaging -- the promotional campaign early on -- on the other hand, may have had everything to do with it. It was unprecedented. Capitol spent more on promoting The Beatles -- specifically I Want To Hold Your Hand and Meet The Beatles -- than on anyone else ever before. It was planned. The plan was to import Beatlemania, and that would drive record sales.



"Beatlemania will be imported here."

Check out what some of this massive promotional blitz entailed (and recall this was before The Beatles had even made their Ed Sullivan appearance) and less than 3 weeks after the Dec. 4 Capitol News memo announcing the decision:

The Beatles Are Coming promotion

Here's the text of the Capitol records memo to sales and regional managers:

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"DATE: December 23, 1963
TO: B/D Sales Managers, Regional Managers
FROM: Paul Russell
Office: National Merchandising


MEMO

ADDITIONAL MEETING SUBJECT: THE BEATLES! CAMPAIGN

The contents of this memo should be distilled for presentation at the upcoming sales meetings. Sufficient copies are being sent to each Regional Manager so that he can hand one out to each of his branch managers who will be conducting their own meetings. Please make certain that all the pertinent information is relayed to the salesmen so they can be fired up to the maximum degree for the start of the Beatle Campaign.

TRADE AD

On Monday, December 30, a two-page spread will appear in Billboard (it may be in Cash Box, too, on that day, or it will run a week later). We have ordered large quantities of soft-sheet reprints of that ad. Each B/D will have these reprints in bulk. Make sure that all important radio station personnel and retail account personnel have their own personal copy of this ad. It's a good one, and will do the job of introducing them to the Beatles.

We have also ordered easel-backed reprints of this ad in large quantity. All B/D's will have enough so that one should be on the counter of all of your important accounts. The copy on the easel-back has been changed to make the ad interesting to consumers. Put it where they'll see it, where they'll be impelled to buy both the Beatle single and LP.

We've asked that both of these items arrive at B/D's no later than January 2, so you can start off the year of The Beatles on the right foot.

"BE A BEATLE BOOSTER" BUTTONS

Shortly after the first of the year, you'll have bulk quantities of a unique see-through plastic pin-on button. Inserted in each button is a shot of the Beatles, with each boy identified. What to do with the buttons? First, have all of your sales staff wear one. Second, offer them to clerks and jocks. Third, arrange for radio station give-always of the buttons. Fourth, keep some in reserve for the requirement which will be listed below under "Tabloid."

BEATLE WIGS

Again shortly after the First, you'll have bulk quantities of a Beatle hair-do wig. As soon as they arrive - and until further notice - you and each of your sales and promotion staff are to wear the wig during the business day! Next, see how many of the retail clerks in your area have a sense of humor. Then, try your jocks, especially those who hold hops. Then, offer some to jocks and stores for promotions. Get these Beatle wigs around properly, and you'll find you're helping to start the Beatle Hair-Do Craze that should be sweeping the country soon.

"THE BEATLES ARE COMING" STICKERS

As soon as possible after the First you'll have fantastic quantities of these two-inch by three-inch teaser stickers. Now, what are you going to do with these huge amounts of stickers? Put them up anywhere and everywhere they can be seen, that's what. It may sound funny, but we literally want your salesmen to be plastering these stickers on any friendly surface as they walk down the street or as they call on radio or retail accounts. That probably won't get rid of them all, however. Make arrangements with some local high school students to spread the stickers around town. Involve your friends and relatives. Remember the "Kilroy Was Here" cartoons that surfaced everywhere about 10 years ago? Well, now it's going to be "Beatles Are Coming" stickers that are everywhere you look.

"NATIONAL RECORD NEWS - BEATLE ISSUE"

Publicity Director Fred Martin has concocted a simply marvelous vehicle for spreading the Beatle story. It's a four-page tabloid newspaper which looks deceptively legitimate. But of course it's our doing, and all it contains is picture after picture and story after story on the Beatles.

You'll be getting huge quantities of this tabloid. How to exploit it? Send bulk copies to major retailers for distribution to consumers. Offer bulks to jocks for give-away. But most important, make arrangements with local high schoolers to distribute them to fellow students after school (check with George Gerken on those arrangements). The idea is to get as many copies of this tabloid as possible into the hands of potential Beatle buyers. Don't, under any circumstances, end up with any large quantities of this tabloid sitting in your back room. They won't help there!

Important note for Sales Office Managers. Because of your limited storage space, make immediate arrangements to send some of the tabloids out to your salesmen's homes, while you send others right out to retailers. Just keep on hand that quantity you'll distribute through the high school students.

BEATLE PROMO LP'S AND DIE-CUT JACKETS

On or before release date (looks like mid-January at the latest) you'll have exceptionally large quantities of both promo albums and jackets. With each copy of the LP that you give to jocks, make sure to include a copy of the Tabloid. You'll have enough promo to allow you to set up contests with your jocks with the album as prizes.

We've sent you the largest quantity of die-cut Jackets in history. Get them displayed ... everywhere!

BEATLE MOTION DISPLAY

Along about the first week in February, you'll receive bulks on an extremely exciting motion display. Sorry it will take us so long, but you'll agree it was worth the wait when you see it. About mid-January, you can begin telling your accounts about the display and arranging for windows.

That about does it. Please get this message to your salesmen and please follow the directions included in this memo. If you have any questions, contact George Gerken immediately.

Regards

Paul Russell
National Album Merchandising Manager "

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Capitol printed up 5 million "The Beatles Are Coming" stickers and "Be A Beatle Booster" buttons almost a month before Ed Sullivan...Anyone even looking cursorily at Capitol's massive campaign will see an advertising and promotional product assault that few -- if any -- other labels of the time would have been capable of, certainly not flailing VJ which was falling apart during the second half of 1963, what with its business manager siphoning off wads of company cash in order to pay off his gambling debts.

I even read somewhere that a Capitol promo guy tried (unsuccessfully) to bribe the University of Washington cheerleaders to hold some "The Beatles Are Coming" placards up at the Rose Bowl.

Here are the liner notes from the back cover of Meet The Beatles:

"You've read about them in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times. Here's the big beat sound of that fantastic, phenomenal foursome: Meet the Beatles!
A year ago the Beatles were known only to patrons of Liverpool pubs. Today there isn't a Britisher who doesn't know their names, and their fame has spread quickly around the world

Said one American visitor to England: "Only a hermit could be unaware of the Beatles, and he'd have to be beyond the range of television, newspapers, radio, records and rioting fans."

Said another: "They're the biggest, hottest property in the history of English show business."

The foursome --- John Lennon, 23, George Harrison, 20, Ringo Starr, 23, and Paul McCartney, 21 --- write, play and sing a powerhouse music filled with zest and uninhibited good humor that make listening a sensation-filled joy. It isn't rhythm and blues. It's not exactly rock 'n' roll. It's their own special sound, or, as group leader Lennon puts it, "Our music is just --- well, our music."

Whatever it is, the Beatles' robust, roaring sound has stimulated a reaction the English themselves describe as "Beatlemania."

Consider these manifestations:

In Newcastle, England, four thousand fans stood all night in pouring rain to get tickets for a Beatles appearance.

In Portsmouth, the queue started 90 hours before the box office opened. Teenagers brought food, drink, blankets and transistor radios, and two determined 16-year-old girls spent four nights outside to hold their place in the queue.

In Carlisle, frantic schoolgirls battled police for four hours in a do-or-die effort to gain admission to a sold-out show.

In Dublin, Ireland, the Beatles' first visit set off a mob free-for-all resulting in unnumbered broken limbs.

At London Airport, reporter Anne Butler had her gloved hand kissed repeatedly by youngsters who saw it accidentally brush against the back of a Beatle.

Similar wild enthusiasm has greeted the Beatles in such disparate places as Sweden (where frenzied girls swarmed up onto stage), Germany, Finland and France, and the acclaim recently brought them one of the highest of all entertainment honors: an appearance before Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and Lord Snowdon at the Royal Variety Performance in London.

And their records? In America, a total sale of a million discs calls for celebrations, gold records, trade news headlines and delirious self-congratulations. A recent Beatles recording had an advance order of a million copies in the United Kingdom three weeks before release. And simultaneously the Beatles occupied positions 1 and 2 in the hit singles charts and 1 and 2 in the album charts --- a phenomenal achievement anywhere.

Now the Beatles are getting ready for a royal welcome in America. Ed Sullivan signed them for three appearances in rapid succession on his Sunday night TV show, They are shortly to film in England a feature length United Artists movie for worldwide release.

And here is their first Capitol record --- twelve of their most sensational songs in their wildest Beatlemaniac style!"

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"Beatlemanic style." If my count was right, 496 words describing Beatlemania, 9 words on the Beatles' music.

I think I recall all the following LP releases through Help! having similar hype, if not as much.

Frankly, while I'll concede the one-two punch of having I Want To Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There kick off side one of Meet The Beatles was a smart move, looking at the way events transpired, it seems unlikely to me that remixing/repackaging Beatles albums had anywhere near the impact that blitz promoting The Beatles' image, promoting Beatlemania as a craze and hyping The Beatles as an event did. Murray The K encouraged the girls to "scream as much as you want" before Shea Stadium.

I think the UK albums could have been released in the US unchanged and have been just as successful once the door was opened. It makes me wonder what Capitol would have done with the covers.

Now, I love the Beatles...the music. But a reading of history, especially in light of the above, demonstrates to me, anyway, that the music was incidental to some extent to the early US success, at least to the suits. To me that explains Twist And Shout, Please Please Me, From Me To You, and She Loves You being hits in 1964 and not in 1963. Having some radio connections and blitzing every radio station with records, promo items, fake newspapers, full two-page spreads in the nation's two top music industry mags, etc., are two very different things and could be expected to result in two very different outcomes, especially when all the stars were aligning to help the endeavour along with TV appearances on a show that a huge swath of the nation watched every Sunday night.

YMMV.

 

In some rock book I read decades ago, there was a quote by a girl who remembered the first time she heard I Want To Hold Your Hand on the radio. She said "it sounded like the future."

When you think about what was the no. 1 in US radio just before I Want To Hold Your Hand went to number one, you can see her point. I think it was Wooden Heart or something.